The Legend of Zelda: Return from the Dark World
by RetroZeppelin96
Summary: My story of Link's life after Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. It deals with the struggles and final adventures of the Oot/MM era Link and how he is connected to the Links of the other timelines.
1. Prologue

Princess Zelda sat in the courtyard. It was March now and it had been well over a 7 years since the mysterious young boy named Link appeared in the Castle courtyard to warn her of Ganondorf's evil intentions. She was almost sixteen now, almost seventeen and she guessed that Link had probably already turned seventeen during his travels, as he was older by a couple of months. She guessed it was now around the same year that the alternate world had been saved by Link in the future that he told her about before he left for his journey.

It was early in the morning and the air was somewhat cold, especially since she only had on her nightgown. Sitting in the grass of the courtyard, she ate her breakfast: a fruit salad with a warm cup of green tea with lemon. She had finished her fruit and took the last sip of her tea when a peculiar sight appeared in front of her out of the corner of her eye.

A fairy with a blue aura was staring straight at her curiously. Zelda placed her teacup in the grass and got up to get a closer look at the mysterious fairy, a fairy that reminded Zelda of the stories Link told her of his perilous quest. Just as she was about to speak to the fairy, it abruptly flew off out of sight and a firm hand clasped itself upon her shoulder. She turned around startled, only to see Richard, the nobleman that her parents arranged for her to marry. "Zelda, what's wrong?" he asked, "What were you rushing towards?" Zelda broke out of her trance and turned around again only to see there was no on else in sight now. She did not answer Richard and in her head she wanted to scream at him for ruining her chance of possibly reuniting with a distant friend. "Zelda I'm talking to you!" the older man said to her. "I wasn't doing anything!" Zelda retaliated; her pleasant morning was ruined now. "What is wrong with you?" Richard was getting angrier, "I'm going to be your husband and you have to start being more open with me from now on. You're far too playful and disrespectful for a young lady as high ranking as yourself!"

Richard's harshness got the better of her and she ran off before he could see the tears swelling up in her eyes. Many guards and servants saw her in distress and attempted to help her but she just ran past them into her bedroom and locked the door. After she cried for a few minutes, she regained her composure and went to her private bathroom for a morning bath. She took off the nightgown and underwear then stepped into the tub. She knew it was going to be a long day so she began to slowly breathe in order to get the thought of the strange fairy out of her head. The fairy only made her think of Link, who she thought about very often.

Whenever Zelda thought of Link, her heart began to ache and she would contemplate the likeliness that he was still alive, and if so, if he would ever come back to see her, the few months they spent together after he came to warn her of Ganondorf and tell the tale of his adventure in the future had strengthened their bond and she felt like she knew him for a very long time.

After finishing her bath, Zelda got dressed in a simple blue shirt and white floral skirt with some white boots. She decided the today she would help out with the castle kitchen and then get some cleaning done with the maids. Zelda was only happy when she kept busy since it took her mind off her the anxiety of the thoughts she had about Ganondorf, Link and the safety of her kingdom. Her father and mother would only shrug off these worries, saying she was just shaken up by Ganondorf's execution.

The day was not as bad as she expected, albeit a little slow. After finishing her volunteer work and playing games with some of the younger children, Zelda returned to the dining hall to eat dinner with her family and some other noble families. Richard was speaking pompously of his daily accomplishments, peering over constantly to make sure he still had Zelda's attention and taking large gulps out of his chalice. Zelda never held anything against Richard, she knew he meant well and really wanted her to be happy. The only problem was that Zelda had no feelings to return to him, she just wasn't ready to commit to anyone, her mind was still preoccupied with the work she did for the kingdom. She eventually became fed up with Richard's continuous drinking and excused herself to go to her bedroom for the night.

Zelda pleasantly hummed to herself as she walked to her room, her mind was now off Link and she was ready for a good night of sleep. When Zelda entered her bedroom, she put on a clean nightgown and brushed her teeth before slipping into her comfortable bed. Just as she was about to doze off to sleep, she heard a creaking sound as her door opened.

Zelda sat up, realizing that she forgot to lock the door. Richard entered through. Zelda gasped, "Richard!" she exclaimed, "You know you're not to enter without my permission, knock before you enter!" Richard stared at her as she put a bathrobe on to cover herself. Richard walked right up to her and they embraced, Zelda began to pull away as she was very tired and annoyed with Richard. He would not allow her to pull and away and kissed her. She began to feel warm, but at the same time very uncomfortable. Unable to pull herself away from Richard, Zelda was too tried to resist any longer and let him kiss her all he wanted. Suddenly, he pushed her onto the bed and started aggressively stroking her legs. "Richard, no!" she screamed, he made a promise to her father and mother to wait until they were married, he promised to respect her and be a good husband, and here he was breaking that promise. Zelda realized there was a reason she never wanted to be with him, not just because of her longing to see Link again, but because he had a menacing air about him. "Get off me, someone help!" she whimpered as Richard moved in on her. He made a grab for her underwear; in defense she raised her foot and kicked him in the stomach. Richard fell back but quickly rose to his feet and pulled out a knife in a fit of anger. "Link!" Zelda screamed in a last hope someone would hear her, not even aware that she was calling for the boy who had left her, "Someone please help!"

As the knife was only a short distance from her face, her survival instincts kicked in and Zelda was able to land a clean kick and avoided the knife. Angrier and blinded by his drunkenness, Richard leapt up ready to choke her to death. Just as Zelda prepared herself to fight the angry drunk off of her, the sound of shattering glass pierced the room, as the door to her balcony was obliterated. Before she could comprehend any of it, Richard was on the ground convulsing with an arrow stuck in his neck. She trembled as she watched him die, closing her eyes until two guards and her father burst through the door. The first guard pulled out his sword and examined the shattered glass of the door to her balcony; the second examined Richard's corpse and her father hugged her and gently asked her what happened. Zelda explained the attempted rape and the arrow shooting through the glass. Losing control, she broke down and cried in her father's arms. The King ordered the guards to stay posted at her room for the night. After the blood was cleaned up and Richard's body removed, she returned to her bed and after crying and shaking in her bed for almost an hour, she was finally able to sleep.


	2. Prologue part 2

**I'm very sorry for the delay. I was in Scotland on vacation and then some not so good things have happened but now I'm back and ready to start posting regularly.**

Zelda spent all morning examining the arrow that claimed Richard's life. It did not look like an arrow crafted for the Hylian knights. With no possible explanation of who could have fired the shot, Zelda left her chamber to sit alone in the courtyard. As she left her room, two guards caught up with her, explaining that they were assigned by her father to watch her at all times.

The young princess felt most frustrated over the fact that she should have been able to defend herself that night. When Link told the stories of his time in the future, he told her that she would become a strong fighter trained by the Sheikah, so why did she feel so defenseless? Zelda did not even feel the presence of the Triforce of Wisdom. Perhaps with Ganondorf gone, she had no further use in this world.

At dinnertime, the king spoke sentimentally of Richard's life and the need for a new husband for his daughter. Zelda was not surprised that her father was oblivious of the attempted rape; the prick was a professional kiss ass after all…

Finally, the king declared that tomorrow he would officially issue a five hundred-rupee award for whoever could catch the man responsible for the murder of Richard. Zelda heard enough and impulsively shouted at her father, "Don't you get it? Richard was a scumbag and whoever killed him saved me from him! He was about to violate me!" tears were rolling from the girl's eyes and the entire dinner hall had fallen into silence. Her father had not wanted to accept the fact that he was about marry his only child to a rapist, but it was clear now he was waking up to his own ignorance. "Impa, take Zelda to her bed, she needs rest."

Impa, Zelda's faithful attendant, took the princess by the hand and they silently walked out of the room and to Zelda's bedroom two guards following behind them. After walking hand in hand to her room, Zelda finally spoke up loud enough for Impa to hear but just quiet enough that the guards were unable to hear them. "Impa, can we talk?" Zelda asked her. Impa nodded her head and they walked into the room and shut the door while the guards took their posts outside. "Impa," Zelda began "I'm scared and confused. When I was attacked last night I felt unable to protect myself. I feel like at my age I should be able to defend myself, not expect everyone around me to defend me." Impa sighed. "I know," She said "you are in great need of proper training. I should have begun teaching you seven years ago. Meet us in 3 hours at the Temple of Time." Zelda looked up. "Us? You and who else?" she asked, but Impa had already vanished from her room.

Over the three-hour waiting period, Zelda read from two books that she obtained from the royal library. The first book was a history of Hyrule, she read from the section that covered the nature of the Triforce. The other book was a collection of old poems. Finally, after waiting patiently, Zelda snuck out of her bedroom window using a rope that she tied to her balcony.

Guards were patrolling all over the streets of Castle Town and Zelda could not allow herself to be seen, immediately making her wish that she had brought some sort of cloak to conceal who she was. As she passed the alleyways, she succeeded in avoiding being seen by guards and most of the citizens of Castle Town didn't recognize her in the dark alleys. After twenty minutes of hiding and running behind walls and bushes, Zelda at last found herself standing in front of the spectacular Temple of Time.

Inside, Impa stood in the middle with another figure standing next to her. "I'm here," Zelda said, stating the obvious "who is that?" Impa said nothing but turned her head towards the other figure. It was clearly a man; he wore ragged green clothing, which was clearly torn, and sewn back together many times over the course of many years. His face was covered by a mask, but Zelda had already figured who it was and did not need Impa to say it. "You cannot be." Zelda muttered. When his mask came off, Zelda gasped.


End file.
